Wildlife Discoveries: September hurricanes bring down many autumn squirrels' nests

GAIL COMPTONWildlife Discoveries

Published Saturday, October 02, 2004

click photo to enlarge

DARLENE HUMPHREYS snapped this photo recently of a mother flying squirrel rescuing her baby after the nest was blown down.

Contributed Photo Gray squirrels and flying squirrels have two litters a year -- early spring and late August. Since August is the beginning of hurricane season, these nests often get blown down in strong winds.

Several things you need to know should a squirrel nest blow down in your yard. First, all squirrel mothers will retrieve their babies if they can.

Each nest will have from two to three young. If possible, the mother will find the nest, dig out one baby at a time and carry each in her mouth to an alternate nest.

During hurricane Frances, a gray squirrel nest fell on the roof of a family's garage.

As they watched, mother squirrel came down, leapt to the roof, recovered one baby and dashed up a nearby tree. After investigating the fallen nest, the family found two more youngsters.

Since warmth is the first thing a squirrel baby needs, I instructed the family to dry them with their warm breath. I asked the family to watch the roof to see if the mother came back and to put the babies back if she did.

They called 30 minutes later, thrilled and excited that the mother had returned.

They climbed a ladder and returned a second baby as the mother squirrel watched. When the humans drew back, the mother picked up the second and took off with it in her mouth.

Although they continued to watch, the mother squirrel never came back and the third baby is being raised by Noah's Ark volunteers.

Another hurricane story comes from Darlene Humphreys, who works at the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Part of a tree came down in her yard and while cleaning up debris, Darlene noticed a flying squirrel run down the trunk of a nearby tree in broad daylight (they are normally nocturnal) rush towards her, stop, and dash back to the tree.

The flying squirrel repeated this several times until Darlene moved aside. Immediately the flying squirrel ran to a spot near where Darlene had been standing and began patting at something small and pink on the ground.

Darlene began snapping photos and realized a baby flying squirrel, about the size of her thumb, was on the ground.

The developed photo shows the flying squirrel mother nudging the baby. In the next instant she picked the baby up in her mouth and scrambled up an oak tree.